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Thunder
Thunder is the nickname of the adventurer, Westia Borsdottir. The daughter of Bor, a knight of some renown in the north, Westia was born in Crucible's Keep where her father, Bor was helping defend the Evenfall from the denizens of the Ashlands. Bor was hardened by his many battles and raised his only child to follow in his footsteps as a warrior and devout follower of Kord. When Westia was 12 years old, her father retired and took his family to Geldn, their ancestral homeland. There Westia continued her martial training under her father's tutelage. When Westia was 16 years old, she joined a mercenary group based in Geldn, called the Brotherhood of Bellringers. For the next two years, The Brotherhood assigned Westia to be a caravan guard for merchants travelling between Geldn and Balderk, a city to the south. In Balderk, Westia met the adventurer, Lightning and they were soon married and shortly thereafter, divorced. During their marriage, they traveled the Evenfall and she adopted her nickname, Thunder. Following their divorce, Lightning moved to Crucible's Keep and shortly thereafter, Thunder followed, to test herself in battle in the Ashlands and bring honor to Kord and her family. She now lives a modest lifestyle, renting a small room above a tavern, the Drunken Fox. '' '' The Chronicles of Westia Borsdottir Last day of Winter '' I've arrived at the Keep, for the first time since I was a young girl. It seems to have more people. Renting a room above The Drunken Fox. Ready to test my limits in combat and honor KORD and my family. Soldiering for the Brotherhood of Bellringers has made me ready to head east into the Wayward Hollows and destroy the enemies of Humanity. Some of my childhood friends are still hereabouts. Forgot how beautiful the Twilight Chasm was. Tired from my journey from Ryth. Don't know where my ex-husband is. Somewhere here in town I hear. Need to rest.'' 1st day of Spring '' Did some leather working at the Barracks. Worked out and tripped over a damned gnome that calls itself Albus. Turns out the gnome will also be adventuring with baronial charters. Great. Soldiers at the Barracks told me there were stories of kobolds tunneling under the Keep and stealing things at night. Two of the three sentries stationed at the sentry tower about 12 miles east of the Keep, Gregor and a dwarf named Orin came riding into the Keep at breakneck speed. They told us a griffon attacked one of their horses. It didn't eat it though! Strange. Then yesterday the three sentries were attacked by orcs, including a giant one-eyed orc and another giant two-headed orc! The three tried to escape to warn the Keep on the two horses remaining and one of the sentries fell off the back of the horse. The cowards left him there to die. The Baron's charter is posted at the Drunken Fox. 150Gp for anyone bringing good information to the Baron about the fate of the sentry left behind, the condition of the sentry tower and reconnaissance of a possible orc fortress in ruins somewhere 50 or so miles to the east of the Keep. '' '' Left the Keep with the charter, the gnome named Albus and a Ranger named Thorin. About 5 miles from the Keep we were attacked by giant 6' long, burrowing insects that looked like a praying mantis with crab claws. Saw them coming but tripped over the damn gnome again! There were two, a male and a female, the female bit me deep on the shoulder of my shield arm and sprayed acid all over me. We killed the female and the male got away. I was covered in bug slime and acid. Had a gaping shoulder wound and lost a lot of blood. The gnome gave me a healing potion, maybe he's not so bad after all. We pressed on and in the evening arrived at the sentry tower. It was a smoldering ruin and the corpse of the uneaten horse and the sentry were still there, the sentry was stripped of his weapons and armor. I cleaned myself up and bandaged my shoulder wound. Lucky it wasn't my sword arm, still hurts like hell. Thorin found Orc tracks leading northeast but we decided to hide nearby and see if the orcs returned. Thorin sneaked closer to the tower that night and spied a dire wolf pack resting under the dark cloudy skies. No campfire tonight. Not needed anyway. Uncomfortably warm here. ''2nd day of Spring '' ''The wolves were gone when the sun rose. Although there is no real sunrise in this gods forsaken land. It stinks here, and it feels very humid, yet the terrain appears arid. Constant grey skies and distant, rainless thunderstorms linger over rolling hills of dry, yellow grasses mixed with the occasional cluster of oak trees, thickets or stone outcrop. The distant thunderstorms are surely a sign from KORD that he approves of my mission. We filled our waterskins at the creek by the burnt watchtower and started stealthily following the orc tracks to the northeast. 6 miles to the northeast, we found a 5' boulder with a strange 2' symbol carved into it. The gnome seemed to think it is less than 10 years old and Thorin knew that it isn't orcish writing. 12 miles to the northeast as daylight faded, we discovered a set trap in a stand of oak trees. We disabled it and set up camp nearby. '' ''3rd day of Spring '' Decided to stay in the oak stand and let my shoulder heal a little more. Still hurts. Thorin reset the trap and set other traps in the area. Found a dry creek bed here with a spring buried under it. Filled our waterskins. Found turkeys and Thorin shot one. In the evening, we heard a scuffle in the distance from the direction we came. Sounded like animals fighting. (dire wolves?) Weather actually cleared up slightly. We saw some patches of blue skies for the first time. From a nearby hilltop, we could see highlands about 40 miles to the east and what looked like a ruined town with a collapsed cathedral about 40 miles to the south.'' 4th day of Spring '' Last night a dire wolf triggered a pit trap and we were attacked soon after by the injured dire wolf and and another healthy one. The gnome killed a wolf and I scared the other one away. The wolf that the gnome killed looked cut up. (griffon talons?) I skinned and prepped the wolf skin for the gnome to repay him for the healing potion gifted to me. That little gnome reminds me of wolverines in the north back home. Ferocious! We decided to make up time and double time it across the Wayward Hollows. We headed east towards the hills in the distance, still following the orc tracks. 25 miles of forced marching and we found a tree with markings similar to the ones we found on the rock a few days ago. The area around the tree was riddled with natural caves. Probably a water source somewhere. No time to investigate. We ate a quick lunch and the gnome said the tree markings were less than a year old. 10 miles later we followed an unusually pleasant floral smell over a hill and through a cave to a 200 yard diameter meadow full of green grass, strange flowers, berries and other plants. Clean, clear streams of water trickled here and there in what reminded me of stories my father used to tell me of magical fey vales, hidden away. The berries seemed to have a healing effect and for the first time in a long time, my shoulder isn't killing me! The only way in or out of the meadow is through the cave we entered from. We've decided to stay here tonight. 35 miles in one day! sweet dreams!'' 5th day of Spring We gathered as many berries as we could carry and headed east after the orcs again. The hills looked about 20 miles away but we only got about 5 miles when KORD brought his mighty powers directly above us and crashed down his divine bolts all around us. A warning for us to stop, I was sure. We obeyed and waited in a dry sink below a little hill until later that night, when the rainless thunderstorm had passed and KORD gave us his blessings. The skies are too dark too continue on so we've decided to sleep here. 6th day of Spring We climbed a nearby hill and could see about 15 miles distant to the east, where the orc tracks lead, was a keep on a hill. The hill is perfectly placed for a fortress, with a strategic high ground and vantage point looking down on hundreds of miles in all directions. We sneaked about 10 miles closer and about 5 miles from the keep, we could see many orc tracks around the area. About 200' from our position an old orc with a bow and a large, young orc with the sword and armor stolen from the sentry were hunting and/or patrolling the area. They came within 50' of us but never saw us, although I think the big one heard us whispering and stopped to look around a bit before moving on. We backed away about a mile to the west and waited until night. We could see multiple fires, 2 or 3, atop the base of the ancient ruined structure. having achieved our mission goal, we summoned Harold and magically traveled back to the Keep. 28th day of Spring I joined my friend, Thorin the ranger and two other adventurers, a half-elf warlock named Baxor, his companion, a flying lizard of some sort and a full blooded elf druid from the Moonsong forest. The four of us agreed to work together investigating the kobold menace rumored to be lurking underneath the keep. We started our investigation by searching Ashtya's forge, where the little devils were said to have stolen a prized mithril hammer the half-breed uses to create her masterpieces. Thorin was able to track the kobolds from the forge to a boarded up building in the old trade district. We checked inside the building and the trail ended there. Unable to find anything, we covered our tracks, set a few traps downstairs and then waited on the top floor, peering through the cracks in the floorboards. Waiting for the kobolds to return. Later that night, four kobolds crept out of a secret hole under a floorboard downstairs. As they approached the door leading out to the street, one of the kobolds stepped on the trap and it mangled him, nearly cleaving the wretched thing in half. The kobold nearest the hole escaped back from where he came as I smashed through the rotting ceiling from the second floor and brought my sword straight through another kobold, killing it instantly. The rest of the party made short work of the other two. The elf druid then shape shifted into a wolf and followed the beast that escaped down the narrow tunnel. Eventually we all followed, crawling down the small tunnel, riddled with even smaller tunnels branching off, too small for a kobold even. After about 150', we came to a larger cavern about 40' in diameter. This cavern had wet, slick walls and surfaces with several small, natural waterways flowing through it and two tunnels exiting the cavern, one heading towards our right, going up towards the Twilight Chasm, accessed only by a rickety rope ladder hanging down and the other to our left, going down deeper into the earth, all the water flowing that way, towards the Mithril mountains. We all climbed the ladder to follow the tunnel heading towards the Twilight Chasm. Once all of us were up the ladder, we followed the tunnel and after a short while, we started hearing a faint sound of buzzing in the distance beyond. It was thought by our party that the buzzing sound was from kobolds which had disgusting bat-like wings, called Urds. After travelling about 400', we reached a larger cavern about 40' high and 90' wide. This was obviously the lair of these foul creatures and they swarmed around us, screeching out their reptilian babble and attacking from the ground and those kobolds with wings attacking from above, attempting to steal our one torch, thus rendering Thorin and I completely blind in the underground darkness. After a furious battle that rendered the elf shape shifter and I unconscious, our band was able to triumph. In the future, I have to be more careful in consideration of flying threats, utilizing choke points when significantly outnumbered and light sources underground. Beyond the large cavern where the battle took place, there was a tunnel to the right, with wind issuing from it, presumably leading up to the surface. Beyond that, there was another smaller cavern, with piles and piles of filth, garbage and various stolen goods from the keep. We discovered several art objects which we later sold at the Bazaar, some lower quality weapons and armor, including a short sword belonging to the Baron's troops that we returned to the Barracks, a middling amount of gold, silver and copper coins and best of all, the Ashtya's mithril hammer! We returned the hammer to the half-breed and she agreed to upgrade our armor as payment. The Baron's agent also seemed satisfied with the bag of kobold hands we brought him and paid us the bounty offered in the charter. I'd like to eventually return and explore the other caves under the keep at some point.